tigervncpasswd(1)

📦
version 1.15.0 · 2 versions
, in debian trixie, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 tigervncpasswd — the manual page, but make it cute 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to tigervncpasswd(1), part of the TigerVNC suite 🦋. This is the little tool that handles your VNC password, and honestly? It's giving "small but essential." Let's get into it ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

tigervncpasswd — change the VNC password 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

tigervncpasswd [passwd-file]
tigervncpasswd -f

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

So what does this do? tigervncpasswd lets you set the password you use to get into VNC desktops. Its default behavior is to prompt you for a VNC password, then store an obfuscated version of it into passwd-file — or, if you didn't specify a passwordfile, into $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tigervnc/passwd 🌈.

Fun fact: the tigervncserver script literally runs tigervncpasswd the very first time you start a VNC desktop, and it invokes Xtigervnc with the appropriate -rfbauth option. Meanwhile xtigervncviewer can also be handed a password file to use through its -passwd option. Teamwork, no cap 🫶

Now, the rules of the password game 👑:

  • It must be at least six characters long (unless you're using the -f command-line option — more on that below).
  • Only the first eight characters are significant. Yeah. Eight. That's the vibe.
💀 Real talk though: the stored password is not encrypted securely. Anyone who has access to this file can trivially find out the plain-text password. Not me being dramatic, that's just facts. Because of that, tigervncpasswd always sets appropriate permissions — read and write only by the owner 🔒. Protect that file like it's your phone with no screen lock.

BUT — and this is the slay part — when you're actually accessing a VNC desktop, a challenge-response mechanism is used over the wire, which makes it hard for anyone to crack your password just by snooping on the network 🌐✨

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -f — Filter mode 🧚. Reads a plain-text password from stdin and writes an encrypted version to stdout. Heads up bestie: in filter mode, short or even empty passwords will be silently accepted 🙈. No warnings, no complaints, it just goes.

A view-only password must be separated from the normal password by a newline character ⭐.

🍓 FILES 🍓

  • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tigervnc/passwd
  • $HOME/.config/tigervnc/passwd

These are the default locations of the VNC password file 📁.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

(that's the site, go look, iykyk)

👑 AUTHORS 👑

Tristan Richardson, RealVNC Ltd., Antoine Martin, D. R. Commander and others 💜

VNC was originally developed by the RealVNC team while at Olivetti Research Ltd / AT&T Laboratories Cambridge. The TightVNC additions were implemented by Constantin Kaplinsky. Many other people have since participated in development, testing and support. This manual is part of the TigerVNC software suite 🌸

okay that's the whole page, you ate it, periodt 💖 this was the tigervncpasswd(1) man page from the TigerVNC crew — much love to them, and go set a password that isn't literally "password" 🎀🦋✨

📦 where this page comes from